for the stylus to read the groove "successfully" the whole system of..........floor, rack, shelf, plinth, platter, tonearm base, bearing, arm wand, cartridge plate, and screws need to be tuned together. each step has to be right......if one step is wrong, then things are off.
what is ’right’? i’ve not seen high end quality cartridges designed to be loose on an arm. not saying it can’t be that way, just never seen it with over 10 turntables, 20 arms, and 30+ cartridges over 30 years.
the best performing systems are solid where they are designed to be solid, and agile and resonance minimizing where they need to do that.
some cartridges even perform better with cartridge screws torqued to a particular spec. i could totally understand that. i recall when Joel Durand was in the early stages of designing his tonearms and he would bring them over to my room to test, he experimented with a number of headshell/cartridge mounting materials and methods. never was ’loose’ or "cushioned" a part of them.
throwing damping products at cartridge mounts is not a direction i see as productive. but might some situation benefit? i suppose i have to keep my mind open. but my sense is that sort of approach is a band aid for some issue elsewhere in the system.....or flaw/compromise in the cartridge, tonearm or turntable design.
what is ’right’? i’ve not seen high end quality cartridges designed to be loose on an arm. not saying it can’t be that way, just never seen it with over 10 turntables, 20 arms, and 30+ cartridges over 30 years.
the best performing systems are solid where they are designed to be solid, and agile and resonance minimizing where they need to do that.
some cartridges even perform better with cartridge screws torqued to a particular spec. i could totally understand that. i recall when Joel Durand was in the early stages of designing his tonearms and he would bring them over to my room to test, he experimented with a number of headshell/cartridge mounting materials and methods. never was ’loose’ or "cushioned" a part of them.
throwing damping products at cartridge mounts is not a direction i see as productive. but might some situation benefit? i suppose i have to keep my mind open. but my sense is that sort of approach is a band aid for some issue elsewhere in the system.....or flaw/compromise in the cartridge, tonearm or turntable design.